Broken Frontier

While it’s not a perfect episode, “Shades of Gray” proves that Heroes still has a lot of life in it despite its waning viewership. There are still far too many storylines in play at the same time—which has been a problem with this series for a while now—but at least they all seem to be leading somewhere exciting.

After vowing to kill his father last week for the murder of his mother, Sylar finally confronts dear old dad, Samson Gray, played by guest star John Glover. Sylar is, however, somewhat disappointed in learning that his father is a bitter, beaten old man who is dying of cancer. Confronting a man who is already clinging to life seems to take the fun out of slaughtering him. The two have an interesting conversation about power, and how having too much of it can make a life worthless and unsatisfying. However, once Samson learns about his son’s healing ability, his demeanor changes completely. After all, a healing power would cure him of his cancer and significantly prolong his life. He uses a paralyzing ability to hold his son in place, but Sylar fights back. Leaving his father to die might just be the revenge he was looking for.

For a show already rife with familial conflict, the dynamic between Sylar and his dad adds a great deal to this series. One hopes that we haven’t seen the last of Samson.

At the end of the last episode, creepy, formerly-villainous puppeteer Eric Doyle sought out Claire Bennet for help in starting a new life. The pairing of these two characters should have  been a lot more interesting than it ended up being, as it served only to present to Claire a moral dilemma. She’s been given a “free pass “ during the federal government’s crackdown on people with super powers, so she feels compelled to help as many people as possible. But can she really help someone who has abused their power in the past? She ends up helping Eric, but unfortunately for her, this gamble has its consequences. As federal agents storm the house once they learn of what she’s done, her dad Nathan Petrelli arrives just in time to flies her to safety. Wait, what? More on him later.

Claire protected the aquatic Alex from government officials in last week’s episode, so it’s only fitting for her to take up his old job at the comic book store as she’s helping harboring super-people. These scenes were actually amusing, although they did little to expunge the stereotype that hot girls want nothing to do with comics. They also helped promote the idea that comic book fans were slobbering manchildren who ogle the first woman they see, which is only applicable some of the time.

In Washington, DC, Nathan rescues Matt Parkman who, as you might remember from last week’s episode, has been strapped to a bomb and left outside the Capitol building by the sinister Emile Danko, a.k.a. the Hunter. After Matt uses his power to read the mind of a bomb squad agent to defuse the bomb strapped to his abdomen, Nathan tries to get rid of Danko for setting Matt up as a terrorist. Things get more complicated when Danko learns that Nathan just might have a power. He does the reasonable thing: He pushes Nathan out of a window. I wouldn’t worry too much about Danko, though. Sylar shows up at the end of the episode hiding in Danko’s apartment with some violent intentions. I’d make a joke about the Hunter becoming the hunted, but that would just be cheap.

In other Heroes news, Hiro and Ando are on a mission to “save Matt Parkman,” soon learning that Matt’s infant son from his estranged wife is named after him. One hopes they give Hiro and Ando something more engaging to do than changing diapers.